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John Jamieson has come a long way from his days of being a high school failure and a college dropout. John has been a successful businessman for over 22 years and has launched several companies from nothing more than an idea and a goal. He has spoken to hundreds of audiences all over the United States and Canada on the subjects of Business, Real Estate, and Wealth Creation. John has spoken in almost every major city in the United States and Canada and is a sought after speaker and trainer. John started in business with no money, no job, and no credit and bought his first piece of investment real estate at the age of 21. Since then he has gone on to purchase tens of millions of dollars of real estate. John also has been involved with tens of millions of dollars of real estate transactions as an agent working with investors from all over the world. He has a unique ability to train people how to start with very little and achieve amazing results. He is currently the owner of Perpetual Wealth Systems which is a national wealth strategy company working with people and businesses on a better business model for automatically and systematically creating tax free wealth. John also is part owner of a real estate investment and sales company in the Metro Detroit area that works with out of area investors to help them build what he calls "real estate cash flow machines." John has been a lifelong resident of Metro Detroit and puts his years of experience with that real estate market to use for investors from all over the globe. John is a former top selling agent and corporate sales trainer for the Century 21 and RE/MAX franchises. He is the bestselling author of the book titled "The Perpetual Wealth System." John is also the author of several training programs on wealth creation and has several live events throughout the year in his home town of Detroit. He is a lifelong Metro Detroit resident where he still resides with his wife and two sons.

They have stable, secure income from multiple sources that they can set their watch by every month

Starting about 10 years before they retire, they begin shifting their assets from riskier investments to low- or no-risk income assets.

A mortgage is generally the biggest debt most of us have. Many argue that you should never pay off your house because the equity you put into it is tied up and not making you money. They might recommend borrowing as much as you can now because interest rates are low.

I say you can have the best of both worlds. First, pay off your mortgage before you retire. By adding small amounts directed to your principle every month, you will take months, even years off your payoff date. When your house is paid off, get the biggest equity line of credit you can. This way, if you see an attractive investment opportunity, you can put your equity to use, and if you don't, you have removed the pressure of a big mortgage payment in retirement.

If you can pay off your mortgage while you are working, why not now shift that payment over to a solid savings or income product? This could work out to tens of thousands of extra dollars producing monthly income for when you retire.

An abundant retirement is about strong positive cash flow that you can count on for years to come. Do you have any idea how much money you need to retire every month? Do you know where you can get that income from? Do you have enough money for home health care or long-term care? Are you protected from big market downturns during your retirement years? How much will inflation eat into that monthly income needed?

Can You Answer These Questions?

All these questions must be part of an income plan. We calculate these for clients all over the country. First, know how much income you and your spouse will receive from Social Security when you retire. You can get an estimate from the Social Security Administration. If you believe that number is at risk because of issues with Social Security, you better start putting more away and growing it safely.

If you need $5,000 per month to retire and the Social Security for you and your spouse is only $3,500, then you have a $1,500 shortfall. Do you have a pension? How much will that be when you begin to draw it? Do you have a 401(k) or Individual Retirement Account? How long could that account last if you need to draw $1,500 a month -- $18,000 in a year? Will you have to pay taxes on what you take out? If you have a 401(k) or traditional IRA, the answer is yes. If you lose 50 percent of your capital to a bear market, how long will you be able to get $18,000 per year?

As you get to be in what we call the "retirement danger zone," which is 10 years before your projected retirement, you need to start shifting assets away from market risk and over to guaranteed products. A solid fixed indexed annuity with a long-term income rider might be a very good call. I wrote an article about the different types of annuities and how to purchase one that fits your needs.

A lifetime income rider (state and product variations exist) will guarantee that you have a certain amount of income (depending on how much you have in your annuity and at what age you start withdrawing) for you and your spouse's life. If you live to be very old, your normal retirement funds might run out, but a lifetime income rider guarantees that income stream regardless of what happens to the underlying cash in the account. Also if you have five to 10 years, you have time for that income rider to grow. Many income riders offer 6 percent and more guaranteed growth every year.

When you purchase a $200,000 annuity, many companies might offer a 10 percent bonus on your initial purchase price so your starting amount would be $220,000. When you add compound growth at 6 percent over 10 years, your income rider would top $400,000. Then you would start to draw your lifetime income at 6 percent of the $400,000, giving you $24,000 a year income for you and your spouse's life. Presto! You have filled your income gap. If you have the resources to purchase another annuity, you might get one with a cost of living clause to hedge against inflation.

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vlady1000

I set 3 goals to reach, and a priority. before retiring 1) The most important one by far- To have a cash flow streams producing at least 2X what I should need for retirement without touching any principle and assuming zero SS, and 50% of these streams to be inflation protected income. 2) Less than a $xxxx of GOOD debt (debt that actually makes you money), and zero bad debt. 3) $xxxx dollars of liquid and $xxx of semi liquid assets. Forget that "what is your number", no all that important, unless you plan on dying on schedule, and with nothing.

How many Americans can afford a $200,000 annuity? From what I know of present individual and family debt they can barely afford to pay the minimum on their credit cards. These articles have an air of unreality to them, as if this were the 1945-1980 era when the US dominated the world economy, the Middle Class was large and prosperous, and one could attend a state college or university for free or close to free.

Americans just don't know how to plan for retirement. Here's what everyone SHOULD do:

PAY OFF YOUR HOUSE BEFORE YOU RETIRE!!

My taxes and insurance per month are less than a 1 bedroom apartment and you have to live somewhere

PAY OFF ANY OTHER DEBT AND THEN DON'T GET ANYMORE!

Maybe a car payment but that should be it.

GET GOOD LIFE INSURANCE!

You can get pretty solid life insurance for $30/month (from Life Ant) even when ur at or near retirement age.

FRONT LOAD YOUR HOUSE MAINTAINENCE!

If you know you need new windows, roof, furnace, etc. Get them done while you still have good cash flow.

LEARN ABOUT THE SERVICES AND DISCOUNTS THAT ARE AVAILABLE TO SENIORS IN YOUR AREA

Most cities have a senior center of some sort and can help with what is available to retired people

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A PLAN TO FILL YOUR TIME.

Part time work, grandchildren, volunteerism, social clubs, hobbies, sports, etc to fill your time with meaningful activity that is free or inexpensive to help maintain yourself physically and emotionally

When a company like Mass Mutual Life Insurance, has an agent that forged my signature for loan requests from "Endowment Policies" for cash value and the company issued checks to the agent bt the name of Harold L. Whitney. who had his license revoked in Jefferson City, Missouri, for stealing. the agent had my social security number, my age, my date of birth. and I don't know what else he had, and of course my signature.I feel Mass Mutual should be liable for the forgery.Albert Kandel564 Sarah Lane, Apt. 305Creve Couer, Mo. 63141

Biggest problem with retirement and pensions...is the worry that by the time you retire, your pension and related benefits will be diminished. The same worry exists after you retire... as quite often pensions and promised benefits are reduced. If you get what you are promised, you are one lucky retiree!

The number one mistake is to not start planning and saving/investing early in life. You have to be be consistent (save with every paycheck), take advantage of any employer matching plan, max out contributions when possible, eliminate debt, avoid risks with your nest egg and plan for multiple streams of income once retired (social security, pensions, dividends, part time work, etc.). There is a great deal of information about retirement available on the web. I use several sites including Dividenedchannel, Valueforum and the site Retirement And Good Living which provides information on finances, health, retirement locations, part time work and also has a great blog of guest posts about a variety of retirement topics.

I have 3 major issues with this article. First, they author does does not address the question as to what happens when one spouse dies. Can the other spouse have a good life or even survive without the lose of income from the deceased spouses Social Security or pension? Married couples must give lots of thought to this issue and the failure to do this is the most overlooked retirement issue of retirees.

Secondly the author claims that if you have $3500 in Social Security and need another $1500 from other sources that this $1500 would be taxable. Not necessarily and in fact probably not. Social Security is not treated has taxable income if a couples annual income + 1/2 of Social Security is less than $34,000. In this case $18,000 (1500 x 12) plus 1/2( 3500 x 12) would be $ 39000 which is only $5,000 over the $34,000 limit. So that couple taxable income would be $18,000 + $5,000 or $23,000. But couples get a $14,000 standard deduction and each gets about $3,800 as individual exemption so that only $23,000 - 14,000 - 2x 3,800 or $1400 would be taxable. This would be in th 10% bracket so that the tax bill would only be $140 or hardly anything to worry about. BTW, many states do not tax SS, which is another great savings.

And lastly, the author overlooks inflation with annuities. That annuity paying out $1500 a month when you are 65 will only be worth about $1,000 when you are 75 given 10 years of 3% inflation eating away at your payout. Annuities should be considered when you are in your late 70s as there are not that many years of inflation left in your life. But if you depend on annuity income for your retirement when you are in your 60s, you will find yourself in deep doodoo when you are in your 80s and maybe even your 70s.

"I say you can have the best of both worlds. First, pay off principle (principal!) every month, "

John Jamieson: How can I have confidence in what you say, when you don't know what "principal" is? I am retired and like to read others' ideas on staying ahead, financially, but you lose me when someone who is paid to write about a subject makes an elementary school mistake in the use of a key word in economics.

Not all Republicans are against helping the elderly and the less fortunate Nixon created the Earned Income & Child tax Credits. Unfortunately, with teh advent of 24/7 Cable News PACS, our once great "GOP" Party is now working to recruit those of low intelligence. Those same people, in fact 62% benefit from Federal programs, thus cut off their own knees with their vote. Some kind of dumb, to be sure.